Outline and evaluate the working memory model. (12marks)Baddeley and Hitch argued that unlike the multi-store model that has only one store for short-termmemory (STM), the STM actually consists of several complex and active components that all worktogether. In the STM, information is transferred and temporarily held before being combined with ourlong-term memory (LTM). It is believed that these components work together, however; still storedifferent types of information separately. This components are; the Central executive, the Visuo-spatialsketchpad, the Phonological loop and the Episodic Buffer.In the Central executive the higher mental level of information is processed. Information from all oursenses gather in this attention store later being disrupted into the appropriate `slave system' that work forthis limited capacity store.The Visuo-spatial sketchpad is also known as the `inner eye'. Here visual or spatial information is storedsuch as reading a map or being able to visualise 2D drawing in 3D. It consists of visual coding were patternscan be recognised and analysing features in terms of their shape, colour and size. This store also has alimited capacity.The Phonological loop can be split into two stores where the information is constantly travelling betweenthe two sub-components. The articulatory process is known as the `inner voice' and stores all he speechrelated information, for a limited period of time. The Phonological loop of the `inner ear' holds theinformation we plan to speak for 2 seconds. It is stored as it is to be spoken. It also stores information wehear from our environment and stores it acoustically for a limited period of time.One study to support the working memory model is conducted by Gathercole and Baddeley (1993). Theyhad two groups. The first group was told to preform two visual tasks together. The tracker task and adescription of an angel set in a hollow `f'. The second group were also told to perform the tracker task, butto perform a verbal task with this. The results of this experiment provide evidence to prove that there areseparate stores for visual and verbal tasks as the second group concluded that they performed their takeswith less difficulty whereas the first group found it extremely hard to focus on two visual takes as theirinformation was conflicting with one another in order to be encoded in to the Visuo-spatial sketchpad.Another study that supports the working memory model is that of a patient referred to as KF, who hadserious brain damage. His problem was with immediate recall of words presented verbally, but not withvisual information. This suggested they had an impaired articulatory loop, therefore meaning that there areindeed separate stores for STM.Brain scans can also show physiological support indicating that separate stores of memory are used fordifferent types of tasks as different parts of the brain are used for verbal and visual data based information,as suggested by the working memory model.Another positive remark about the working memory model is that it is more plausible and realisticcompared to the multi-store model as it suggests that the STM holds our information in ties with

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STM is a static store with its fixed duration and capacity rate that may be little affected. The workingmemory model gives more in-depth information about the short-term memory store in contrast tothe multi-store model. On the other hand, the working memory model has been hugely criticised fornot being a comprehensive model of memory as it only concerns itself with the short-termmemory.An additional point is that the least information is known about the main component of the model,the central executive.…read more